Making iced coffee is easy — you do it the night before. And when it's this hot outside, there's no better way to start the day. Get the details, below...

We're recent converts to making coffee at home. Yes, we know, we're not the norm. But we didn't drink coffee every day, it was a nice treat we enjoyed on a break from work, and, to be honest, all the paraphernalia intimidated us.

But in the summer, iced coffee is like the cool, fashionable friend we forgot we liked hanging out with so much. So when our mom recently bought us a little coffee maker (for her own sanity when visiting), we immediately researched the best way to make it at home.

Here's what we learned:

Brew it twice as strong. Our tiny coffee maker filter could hardly hold all the grounds, but we scooped twice as much as we normally would for hot coffee. Since iced coffee is diluted by the ice cubes, this is important. We tasted ours when it was hot and thought, "Yowza." But the next morning, over ice, it was mellow and perfect.

Add sugar while it's hot. As when making sweet tea, you need to add the sugar when the liquid is hot, so that it dissolves completely.

Make it the night before. We poured our sweetened coffee into a glass measuring cup and put it in the fridge, so it was ready to go the next morning.

Add flavor. We stirred in a tiny bit of almond extract (just 1/4 teaspoon for almost 2 cups of coffee). Delicious.